LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures Entertainment on Wednesday dropped plans for its Christmas Day release of “The Interview,” a movie that depicts the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after receiving a terror threat against theaters.

Before that, the four largest theater chains in the United States said they would not show the movie, which has been at the center of a devastating hacking attack on Sony over the last several weeks. In a statement, Sony said: “We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theatergoers.”

American intelligence officials on Wednesday concluded that the North Korean government was centrally involved with the attacks on Sony’s computers. That determination and the cancellation of the film were new twists in a series of developments that has found a major studio fighting for its art, and perhaps life, against forces driven by a foreign government.

Shortly before Sony stepped back, AMC Theaters, citing a need for customers to “plan their holiday moviegoing with certainty and confidence,” joined Regal Entertainment, Cinemark and Carmike Cinemas in dropping the film. Together, those exhibitors control more than 19,200 screens across the United States. Smaller chains in the United States and Canada’s Cineplex Entertainment also canceled bookings.

A Sony spokesman said the studio “has no further release plans” for the $44 million comedy. The cancellation was a sharp defeat for the studio, which for months had stood behind the film and its plot as being within its creative rights, even as North Korean officials excoriated it as “an act of war,” and a group of hackers raided the studio’s computers and published mounds of private corporate data online in declared retribution for the movie. “The Interview” was co-directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

On Tuesday, a threat of terrorism against theaters that show “The Interview” was made in rambling emails sent to various news outlets. The threat read in part, “Remember the 11th of September 2001.” The emails aimed the threat at “the very times and places” at which “The Interview” was to play in its early showings.

Once the hackers threatened physical violence, the film’s cancellation became almost inevitable, even though Sony spent a day steadfastly maintaining its plans for the release and premiere. Since the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings in 2012, Cinemark had fought lawsuits with a defense that said the incident was not foreseeable — a stance that would have been nearly impossible with “The Interview.”

The film’s collapse stirred considerable animosity among Hollywood companies and players. Theater owners were angry that they had been boxed into leading the pullback. Executives at competing studios privately complained that Sony should have acted sooner or avoided making the film altogether. To depict the killing of a sitting world leader, comically or otherwise, is virtually without precedent in major studio movies, film historians say.

And some Sony employees and producers, many of whom have had personal information published for the world to see, bitterly complained that they had been jeopardized to protect the creative prerogatives of Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg. With “The Interview” and other films in which he co-directed or starred, including “This Is the End” and “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” Mr. Rogen has pursued a career that makes a virtue of offensiveness.

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The threat to attack movie theaters that show Sony’s “The Interview” turned a cyberattack from a matter of theft to one of terrorism.CreditDavid Goldman/Associated Press

A spokesman for Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg said they would have no comment.

The multiplex operators made their decision in the face of pressure from malls, which worried that a terror threat could affect the end of the holiday shopping season. Similarly, studios that compete with Sony were scrambling behind the scenes to protect releases that include the latest “Hobbit” extravaganza and the musical “Into the Woods.”

Regal said in a statement: “Due to the wavering support of the film ‘The Interview’ by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats, Regal Entertainment Group has decided to delay the opening of the film.” Cinemark confirmed that it had decided to pull the film. Carmike said in a statement that it “must take threats against movie theaters very seriously” and that it would “delay the exhibition” in an “abundance of caution.”

The incident is likely to be remembered as a failure of Hollywood leadership. As the attack progressed, both the studios and their Washington-based trade association, the Motion Picture Association of America, remained largely defensive, and ultimately found no way to save the film or to stem the flow of Sony’s private data. The data has been released online in waves since the hackers first breached the studio’s system Nov. 24.

The National Association of Theater Owners, which represents exhibitors, mobilized its own response to the crisis immediately as the threat of violence surfaced on Tuesday. The association convened its board for briefings by both Sony and by officials with the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security, according to a person briefed on the sessions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

That person said the officials spoke in terms far less assuring than those used publicly by Homeland Security, which had played down the threat. Instead, theater owners were told that government agencies could not gauge the ability of the hackers to go from digital to physical threat, leaving each exhibition company to decide individually how to proceed.

Similarly, this person said, Sony “punted,” asking theater owners to take responsibility for solving a problem that, in their view, belonged to the studio.

Sony’s decision drew sighs of relief from some of its own employees, particularly the studio’s television division. But some experts in security had harsh words.

“The notion that Sony and the theaters are going to react by caving on this film — a comedy — is ridiculous,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, who was President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism adviser. “This is a horrible precedent,” Ms. Townsend added.

As the movie collapsed, Amy Pascal, Sony’s co-chairwoman, found herself facing whispers and speculation in trade publications that her job was in peril. But defenders within the company strongly rebuffed that talk, arguing that Michael Lynton, Sony’s chief executive, remained comfortable with her leadership and that he was as responsible for “The Interview” as Ms. Pascal.

Pulling “The Interview” added to the financial hardship that the attack has already had on Sony. Along with the $44 million production cost, which was shouldered in part by LStar Capital, Sony has spent at least $35 million to promote the film. (It moved to end advertising on Wednesday morning.) By not showing “The Interview” in theaters, ancillary income — deals that ensure certain television rerun revenue — are threatened.

Hackers claim to have taken at least 100 terabytes of Sony data. Sony computer systems were damaged and the studio is already the focus of at least two lawsuits from former employees who had their personal information spread online. The studio is insured against at least some of its losses.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

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